An affinity separation can be defined as any separation achieved by employing the specific binding of one molecule by another. Bioaffinity separation is defined as an affinity separation in which one of the components involved in the affinity reaction is biologically active or is of biological interest. Bioaffinity separations generally involve at least one biomacromolecule, such as a protein or nucleic acid, as one of the components of the binding pair. Examples of such bioaffinity binding pairs include: antigen-antibody, substrate-enzyme, effector-enzyme, inhibitor-enzyme, complementary nucleic acid strands, binding protein-vitamin, binding protein-nucleic acid; reactive dye-protein, reactive dye-nucleic acid; and others; the terms ligand and binder will be used to represent the two components in specific bioaffinity binding pairs. This type of specific binding is distinct from the partitioning of a solute between two solvents. Such partitioning is based on hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity considerations and is relied on, for example, in solvent extraction, high performance liquid chromatography and gas liquid chromatography.
Affinity separations are generally considered to require the use of solid supports derivatized with a ligand or binder. These separations can be configured as batch processes or chromatographic processes with the latter generally being preferred. Affinity chromatography is well known and has been reviewed, for example, in C. R. Lowe, "An Introduction to Affinity Chromatography", North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, N.Y. 1978. Lowe describes the characteristics desirable in a solid support to be used in an affinity separation. According to Lowe, the solid support should form a loose, porous network to allow uniform and unimpaired entry and exit of large molecules and to provide a large surface area for immobilization of the ligand; it should be chemically inert and physically and chemically stable; and the support must be capable of functionalization to allow subsequent stable coupling of the ligand. Additionally, the particles should be uniform, spherical and rigid to ensure good fluid flow characteristics.
The list of support materials suitable for affinity chromatography is extensive and will not be reviewed here (see Lowe, 1978, for a partial listing). It is not generally possible for a given support to achieve all of the above objectives. One compromise is evident in the use of high surface area porous supports, such as porous glass or porous polyacrylamide beads. These type supports have the disadvantage that washing away contaminating substances is difficult due to the tortuous paths and dead end channels in these supports [Eveleigh, Journal of Chromatography, Volume 159, 129-145 (1978)]. Another disadvantage of porous supports is that not all of the surface area is usable with large macromolecules. That is, the pore size may be too small to allow the macromolecule to enter thereby limiting the effective surface area and capacity [Zaborsky, Biomedical Applications of Immobilized Enzymes and Proteins, Volume 1, p. 41, Ed. Chang, Plenum Press (1977)].
A further practical disadvantage of standard solid support affinity chromatography is the decreasing efficiency of the column as binding sites at the incoming end of the column become filled with the target binder molecules. The binder then must flow further down the column to find a free ligand and, therefore, the probability of the elution of the target prior to binding increases. Countercurrent chromatography where the sample is constantly exposed to fresh support overcomes this disadvantage. However, affinity supports are not generally amenable to such processes because the support is not conveniently pumped as a slurry. Solid supports are ideally suited for use in packed beds (e.g., columns): they can be packed well, are easily retained on porous frits and, being rigid, are self supporting. Problems arise, however, when one tries to transport them. They tend to sediment irreversibly in low flow areas, pack together as a mass if obstructed, and the particles abrade by contact with each other and the containing walls. Slurries of particles could be transported at low concentrations. That, however, is impractical requiring transportation of the carrier fluids also. A major problem in designing a practical continuous system is how to transport a packed slurry without carrying over fluids from one stage to the next. Seals or gates introduce abrasion and invariably leak or fail by virtue of compaction of sediment within them and fragmentation of the support rapidly becomes apparent.
Continuous chromatographic separation, using solid supports, has been made possible using a rotating annular bed in which sample is applied at a fixed point in a descending curtain of elution fluid, separated components being collected around the lower periphery. Such devices are cumbersome to construct and operate and suffer from the major disadvantage that the bulk of the bed (support) is not being utilized for the separation, Furthermore, problems associated with an even distribution of eluant flow, sealing, and optimization of the separation have inhibited general exceptance of the approach.
A still further disadvantage of solid supports is their propensity to become plugged with debris from the sample. This may be cellular debris from a biological sample or physical debris from other sources, but samples frequently require filtration prior to processing in order to preserve the good flow characteristics of the column.
Affinity separations often form a component part of other processes. One example is their use in heterogeneous immunoassays. Here the affinity separation is used to capture an analyte from a complex mixture such as serum or plasma. After capturing the analyte, the contaminants are washed away and the analyte is detected using any number of well known assay protocols.
Some common solid supports in this area are plastic spheres (beads), interiors of plastic test tubes, interiors of microtitre plate wells, magnetic particles, and porous glass particles. The largest disadvantage of these systems is the generally limited surface area which limits capacity and capture efficiency. This, in turn, leads to a limitation in sensitivity (change in response/change in concentration) and detection limit (minimum detectable concentration).
Certain separation problems have been traditionally dealt with by liquid-liquid extractions. For example, in nucleic acid hybridization assays, requiring purified nucleic acid, a nucleic acid from the sample, such as DNA or RNA, needs to be bound to a solid support. To obtain the nucleic acid to be probed it must first be released from a cell (if within a cell), by lysis, then extracted from the lysate. The most common extraction technique uses an aqueous phenol/chloroform mixture (Maniatis et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, pp. 458-9, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1982). Proteins, which are the major component of the lysate, tend to interfere with the extraction. Following extraction of the nucleic acid, excess phenol must be extracted with ether and then the ether evaporated. The nucleic acid containing solution is then concentrated prior to deposition on a solid support; see, for example, Church et al, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, Volume 81, 1991 (1984). This is a tedious and hazardous process with many opportunities for material losses along the way.
Some liquid phase affinity partitioning separations have been achieved. P-A Albertsson, "Partition of Cell Particles and Macromolecules", Almquist and Wiksell, Ed.; Wiley, New York, 1971, reported the development of a partitioning system based on the immiscibility of aqueous solutions of dextran and polyethylene glycol. S. D. Flanagan et al., Croatian Chem. Acta, Volume 47, 449 (1975), adapted that system to allow affinity mediated separations by attaching ligands to the polyethylene glycol thus allowing specific binding affinities to drive the separation. This system has limited utility in that it requires that the binder first partition into the phase containing the ligand to some degree before the specific binding interaction can occur. The system is further limited in that it is applicable only to batch processes and not to chromatographic processes.
Perfluorocarbon emulsions have been used to study cell-substrate interactions as reported by Keese et al. [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, Volume 80, 5622-5626 (1983)]. While anchorage-dependent cells are traditionally grown on solid supports, Keese et al. have shown that they can be grown at the phase boundary between liquid perfluorocarbons and tissue culture medium. Keese et al. showed that surface active compounds such as pentafluorobenzoyl chloride provided an effective surface for growing such cells. However, because of evidence indicating no reaction between the acid halide and the cells or proteins present in the culture medium, the authors speculated that the pentafluorobenzoyl chloride was hydrolyzed to form pentafluorobenzoic acid on the surface of the perfluorocarbon droplet. The authors further speculated that the acid surface caused a layer of denatured protein to deposit on the surface of the liquid perfluorocarbon providing a suitable surface for attachment of the cells. As further proof of the lack of acid chloride-amino group reactions, the authors obtained cell attachment and proliferation by sonicating the emulsion, without perfluorobenzoyl chloride, with water or ethylene glycol. Keese et al. speculated that unknown surface active compounds were being formed by this treatment.
Because affinity separation is a powerful technique and because currently available supports suffer from various disadvantages, there is a need for improved supports. These should have the following properties: physical and chemical stability; chemical inertness; compatibility with a variety of biological samples; utility in batch and chromatographic applications and in countercurrent type applications; high surface area; ability to allow high flow rates in chromatographic applications; ability to provide for ready and stable attachment of ligands or binders to the surface; allow simple concentration of the captured product; allow easy automation of any separation process; and allow simple efficient regeneration of the support.